NewsOnF1 - 19 July News

19-July: At the Friday press conference for the French Grand Prix, Ange Pasquali indicated the Toyota will be making their decision regarding their driver line-up for 2003 in August but denied that they are talking to Wurz, Button or Frentzen and said "At the moment we haven't taken any decision and I think we will take our decision around the end of August, around Spa Grand Prix. We concentrate on our priority, which is the car and improving the car and the team. This decision will be taken with Japan as well, but none of the names you've mentioned now have been in contact or even negotiating with us so there is no truth in those rumours."
As for their view of McNish's performances so far, Ange said "Allan is doing a reasonable job with us. It's the first year in Formula One for him. For sure it's not easy and he's also been unlucky. If you look at Silverstone, to stay on the grid at his home Grand Prix was not very nice and we are very sorry for that. Yes, Allan is doing a reasonable job with us and good technical feedback during tests, so at the moment there is no emergency."

David Richards was happy with the result BAR achieved at Silverstone and said "So often the case is that everyone is working exceptionally hard and actually doing a very good job but the outside world doesn't see it. It was just reassurance to everybody back at base that all the hard work has been worthwhile and they are on track. It just picked up a bit of the frustration so you will see a fairly cheerful bunch of people this weekend."
As for the future of his driver Jacques Villeneuve with the team, David said "Obviously I'm not going to discuss the commercial relationship but I would like to keep him on the long term. Jacques and I have had discussions about this and I think he's also quite keen to stay on the long term as well. Clearly that will be an ongoing discussion between the two of us."
Richards refused to speculate on Panis' future as well and just said "Olivier clearly has done a great job for the team and again he's here at his home event, we are looking for him to do a great job as well."

Jean Todt believes it is very difficult for Michael to clinch the championship here and said "Let's say, we are very pleased with the way the season has got along so far. Each race is important. We know that for the first time since the beginning of the season Michael, and only Michael, is in a position to be champion. We feel it will be very difficult here because you need so many things to achieve that in this Grand Prix. But honestly, the important thing is not to lose it at the last one and we feel that we are in quite a strong position to try to achieve it before the last one."
Regarding the rumour of him taking over Luca Montezemolo's job, he said "I don't like to use a big name, but if we are where we are, it is because we have a good team, very strong. I don't say dream team but it's almost a dream team if we can speak about dreams in our business. We have very strong partners, so all together we are blowing in the same direction, which is probably our strength. We are not the best, but probably we are all aiming in one direction, which makes speed and we don't want to change what we are."
He is hoping that Luca decides to stay and said "He said very clearly that it's one part of the story which is over after ten years. But life is made of different stories and hopefully we are going to start another story altogether."

Tom Walkinshaw talked a bit about the situation at Arrows and said "There's not really a lot to say. If I told you we didn't run because the drivers went so well at Silverstone after they had Friday off you wouldn't believe me, would you, so I won't tell you that. Basically, as we speak, there are still negotiations going on in London with investors and the team, and we were advised the best thing is to do very little today so that the consequences of anything happening on the track wouldn't interfere with the negotiations. It's as simple as that really."
Tom was confident that the matter will be resolved in the end and said "I'm sure that in the end it will be OK. It's just a rather drawn-out process and it's a bit unfortunate it had to be done in the public glare, but anyway, it's there now so we just have to now work our way through it and get it completed."
Tom confirmed that the cars will go out onto the track tomorrow.

Pierre Dupasquier admitted that he was surprised by the good performance from the Michelins in the wet at Silverstone and said "I must say we have been pleased to find out at Silverstone in particular that after the Friday testing it was decent, we had a good surprise during the race when David Coulthard used the intermediates. I was shocked by that. I said 'this guy has guts' and he did a pretty good job. He was very fast at this particular time, but to find out this you had to concentrate not on the images, which were great, but on the lap-by-lap times. Every time in the wet it would change. I would say that for those who spent time concentrating on every lap they would find out that beside the red car from Jean in front of me, we were pretty much in the pack of all the other cars in the field, which for us was quite a good surprise!"

19-July: What the teams and drivers said following Friday practice at Magny-Cours ... Report

19-July: French GP – 2nd Friday Practice Session: David Coulthard sets the fastest time of the session ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher. Rubens Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher and Eddie Irvine make the top 6 ... Timed Results ... Report ... Notes

19-July: French GP – 1st Friday Practice Session: Rubens Barrichello sets the fastest time of the session ahead of David Coulthard and Michael Schumacher. Juan Pablo Montoya, Ralf Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen make the top 6 ... Timed Results ... Report ... Notes

French Formula 1 Grand Prix Schedule:

Session	Time (Local / GMT) - Current local time
Friday Practice Session 1 Friday Practice Session 2 Saturday Practice Session 1 Saturday Practice Session 2 Qualifying Session Warm-up Session Race	11 AM Nevers Time / 9 AM GMT 1 PM Nevers Time / 11 AM GMT 9:00 AM Nevers Time / 7:00 AM GMT 10:15 AM Nevers Time / 8:15 AM GMT 1:00 PM Nevers Time / 11:00 AM GMT 9:30 AM Nevers Time / 8:30 AM GMT 2:00 PM Nevers Time / 12 PM GMT
Go to the French GP Page